


Everything Is Ready, At Last

by bagog



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 13:43:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14672280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bagog/pseuds/bagog
Summary: Seven inter-connected shorts where Kaidan considers his relationship with Shepard and realizes just how far he's come, and just how ready he is.





	1. Day 1 - Family

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Kaidan Appreciation Week, 2015.
> 
> I posted these on my tumblr, some years ago, but a couple people have told me I should port over my tumblr stories to AO3. 
> 
> So here we go! if you've read my tumblr, you've probably already read this, in which case, I'm sorry to deceive you into thinking this was a new story...

“Oh Kaidan… it’s beautiful!” Mrs. Alenko stepped out of the elevator onto the Presidium and covered her mouth with her hands.

“I’m really sorry, mom.” Kaidan stepped out behind her, hands stuffed in his pockets. “I promise we’re going to leave for Surkesh as soon as I’m done with my work on the Citadel. But… the press conferences and the special appearances. _And_  Shepard’s got that surgery, I just can’t afford to get away–”

“Oh _stop_ Kaidan!” She waved her hand in his face and hurried off to look at the Krogan monument.

The Citadel was still a bit of a mess even after so much reconstruction. Kaidan had meant to take his mother someplace once the galaxy was back together, but it seemed more and more like that wasn’t going to happen. Also… these days it seemed more and more like there was no time like the present to do anything your heart was set on.

“There’s _lakes_!”

“C’mon, mom, they’re really more like big puddles…” Kaidan rubbed the back of his neck. “Anyway, there used to be a row of shops, but it’s gone now. Sorry, this place really isn’t up to caliber…”

“I _certainly_  hope you’re not this ornery with Shepard!” She scoffed, watching a hanar street preacher hover back and forth while he spoke across the water. “He’ll _never_  heal with that kind of attitude.”

“Hey!” Kaidan laughed, “I… I’m a very encouraging partner!”

“So,” she turned to face him, only momentarily distracted by the shining Citadel Tower under reconstruction. “Do I finally get to meet my future son-in-law on this trip?”

Kaidan rolled his eyes, “You’ll be staying at his house while I finish up all the appearances I’m scheduled for, so you’ll see loads of him.”

“Oh good,” she nudged him, “Was starting to think you were making up this whirl-wind love-affair. And I thought your father and I met under interesting circumstances.”

At that, Kaidan hugged around her shoulders.

“Yeah…” he squeezed tight and she rolled her eyes, but softly rubbed his back.

“I’m okay. I wish he were here,” she said softly. “But I know he’d be so proud of everything you’ve become. You remind me so much of him, Kaidan.”

“Thanks, mom.”

“So,” she cleared her throat, “You did promise to take me shopping…” 


	2. Day 2 - Childhood

It took just a minute for Kaidan to find the right way to sit in the small chair left beside the little turian girl’s hospital bed: his heavy armor made him clatter clumsily. He finally decided to plop into it awkwardly and play it off as a joke.  
  
It was the right choice–the girl tried to bury her giggling in the blanket pulled up the way up to her chin.

“Oof! It’s okay! No need to call the nurses! I’m fine!” he waved hysterically, and that earned an outright guffaw. “And what’s your name?”

“Juryte,” she peeped.  
  
Kaidan had had kids climbing all over him all morning at his charity visit to the T’orah Mijel Memorial Children’s Hospital, and at least a dozen kids were still making a ruckus outside the door to Juryte’s isolation room, waiting for him to come back out. Most of the kids in isolation rooms had been shy and sheepish, and Juryte was no exception, but Kaidan was getting used to what would get them talking. 

“You’ve got a beautiful room, Juryte! I love how you’ve decorated it.”

“Thanks, I hate the hospital.” She rose up slightly from underneath her cacoon of blankets.

“I get what you mean, when _I_  was a kid, I was _always_  in the hospital!”

“How come?” 

“Well, I was always hurting myself. Later on I had _really_  nasty headaches,” he told her covertly, and she listened with wide-eyes. “I was _always_  in for tests and scans and check-ups. Bleh. Was always ready to leave. I made some good friends though…”

He found out all about how how Juryte’s parents had died in Sovereign’s attack three years ago (he steered the conversation away from that) and that her uncle was taking care of her now, and all about how she liked to build model ships.

“Which one’s your favorite?” he asked, pointing to the ships lined up near the window. When she pointed one out, he pulled it over biotically.

“That’s so _cool!”_ she squealed. “I wish I was a biotic!”

“Ha, well, mine didn’t start up till I was just about your age…”

“Really? I **hope**  I have them.”

Kaidan smiled. Turian biotics were feared, the culture was terribly suspicious of them. And they were plenty rare. But the same could be said about human biotics too. Kaidan’s biotics had been a burden hanging over his head since he was this girl’s age, but to Juryte, they were _awesome_. Not something to be hated or feared.

“Y’know,” he said lightly, taking tiny Juryte’s hand in his. “The guy who taught me biotics was a turian…”

“Really!?”


	3. Day 3 - Combat

Kaidan rolled out of the way as the Brute crashed to the ground, bursting apart into pixels.

_Round 2 is over!_

“Nice one, Loverboy!” Jack sang, popping out from behind her cover. Kaidan made for the barricade and tried not to show how hard he was limping; behind the half-wall, though, both biotics dropped the pretense.

“That thing almost smashed me on the way down…” Kaidan wiped the sweat off his brow.

“Shut up and drink your juice,” Jack panted, handing him the pouches she had popped while he was ‘cleaning up.’ “And here I’d figured celebrity life made you soft.”

“Well it’s good to see you can kill something other than your students’ GPA,” he slurped at his juice pouch, draining it in a single pull. Jack crowed.

“I _have_  to: they’re all watching!”

A charity match, sponsored by Grissom Academy. A no-ammo, no-medi-gel, Super Elite Reaper charity match. Just Grissom’s star teacher and the Second Human Spectre. It was a recruitment ploy, definitely, but Kahlee Sanders had pitched it to Kaidan as a chance to celebrate the ‘contributions and sacrifices of biotics during the war’ and finally change public opinion.

How could he refuse? Also… he’d be lying if he said he didn’t miss the combat.

“So, you’ve got something showy planned for the finale?” He stuffed his empty pouch in a pocket and grabbed Jack’s before she could toss it onto the ground.

_5… 4… 3…_

_“_ Save a Banshee for the end–take it out together!” She grinned maniacally. “Kiss under the fireworks for the camera.”

_2… 1…_

“My _fiance_ is watching, Jack.”

_Round three!_

“Guess you shouldn’ta left him at home while you had all the fun!”

She leapt from behind the barricade and flung a Cannibal into a wall with enough force to pixelate it instantly. Kaidan followed after, getting off an early reave field when a Brute came up on it’s hind legs to charge.

“He’s really in no condition to fight…” Kaidan shouted across the arena, catching a blast to his barrier. “ _I’m_  in no condition to fight!”

“So let me get this straight,” Jack retorted, lifting one of the Brutes and slamming it down onto a nearby Ravager. “You left your _boytoy_  at home, you left your _mom_  with the _fucking Cheerleader_ –”

“–she wanted to go shopping! Miranda said she’d spring for a bunch of nice new stuff–” His warp feel collided with Jack’s, and the Brute roared back and disintegrated.

“–all so you could hang out with _me!”_

“It’s for the children, Jack,” he wheezed a laugh and flung a group of husks off the stage. Jack ran back his way and they crashed–panting–behind the barricade.

“That’s… why… you should come teach… at Grissom.” She gave him a stony smile, just a glimmer of hope behind her eyes.

“Was… this… you’re trying to recruit _me_?”

“Kahlee thought it’d be a good time to give it a shot.”

“Guess I’ll think about it.” He quirked an eyebrow and Jack punched him in the shoulder with a laugh.

“Think fast. No more kids growing up like we did, alright?”

A Banshee’s scream echoed around the stage.

“Showtime, professor,” Kaidan grinned, knocking fists with Jack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've read The Difference Between the Sea and the Sky, you know I love writing about the arena...


	4. Day 4 - Friendship

“It’s just a shame Shepard asked me to be his Best Man before you could have the chance,” Garrus teased, leaning on the window ledge overlooking the Wards.

“No he didn’t,” Kaidan laughed, feeling constricted still in his armor. “We’re not even having a wedding party like that… least I don’t think so–and how do you even know what a ‘Best Man’ is?”

“James.”

“Figures!”

Kaidan had just been overseeing training of new biotic tactics at C-Sec Academy and had decided to walk back up through the Ward juncture to meet back up with his mom in the Presidium. Garrus had been waiting by one of the bay windows not far from Dr. Michelle’s old clinic.

“Come on, Kaidan! We’re a team, you, me, and Shepard. I haul you out of the fire on Therum, you save me from that Banshee on Kalini” he counted off the incidents on his talons, “And Shepard…”

“And Shepard runs away from both of us in London,” Kaidan chuckled.

“Not for the first time,” Garrus elbowed him in the ribs. “Probably not the last, either.”

“We’ll see about that!” he crowed, then sobered as he and Garrus gazed out over the Wards. “Now that the war’s over… I’m looking forward to more times like this for Shepard. And for me. Just… hanging out with friends.”

“Mm,” Garrus folded his arms on the ledge, “Not a lot of time for chitchat with the Reapers annihilating civilization. Though we seemed to find the time, didn’t we?”

“Sure we did! Sounds pathetic but… I’ve actually made more friends in the last three years than I had in the rest of my career with the Alliance.” He cast a sidelong glance, but Garrus nodded sympathetically. “I’m not the sort to have a lot of friends… or I didn’t think so. But with this war, I’ve made a lot of friends and… and lost a lot too. I’m glad you’re around, Garrus.”

“Wouldn’t be here without you, Kaidan.” Garrus chuckled, “Wouldn’t be as… ethically conflicted without you, either.”

Bachjret Ward was spread out beneath them, streets like a living circuit board, and Kaidan watched Orion peek out from behind the Kithoi ward arm.

“Y’know, this was one of the first places I came the first time I was on the Citadel. Me, Shepard, and Ash… stood right here. It was the first time I really felt like I belonged on my posting.” 

Back then, the light of the Widow and the Serpent nebula had cast a rosy hue over everything. Now that star was gone, and the Citadel orbited Earth, familiar stars in a backdrop of infinite night behind the seat of galactic power.

“I know the feeling.” Garrus clapped him on the back. They stood for another moment, when Garrus smiled slyly, “So… I suppose if Shepard hasn’t asked me yet, you can still request me to be _your_ Best Man…”  
  
“Oh,” Kaidan scratched the side of his nose. “I’ve already asked Wrex.”

The look on Garrus’ face was priceless.


	5. Day 5 - Romance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The lightest touch of smut.

There was an ambient bossa track playing over the stereo system when Kaidan let himself back into Shepard’s apartment, and there was a grunting from the downstairs bedroom.

“Shepard?” Kaidan called. He made a bee-line for the back room, but moved sluggishly–between all the appearances and charity gigs in the last several hours, he felt grimy and exhausted underneath his armor. In the back bedroom, Shepard was on the floor pounding through a set of push-ups at practically boot-camp speed. 

Kaidan crossed his arms, and cleared his throat. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Shepard?” Shepard looked up, kept himself suspended on his arms and threw Kaidan a brilliant grin. 

“Almost done with my workout.” Beads of sweat were caught in the scars that were slowly healing from his face, and his white shirt had a dark ‘V’ from the collar to the navel.  Kaidan’s pajama pants were actually starting to look tight on Shepard’s legs again.

“You _just_ had an operation today,” Kaidan chided, deciding to gingerly lower himself to sit on the floor after noticing how clean the bed looked.

“A _small_  operation,” Shepard panted, “And I got back hours ago. Even took a nap. You would’ve been proud of me.”

“Yeah, well…” Kaidan shook his head in defeat and tipped back prone on the floor, feeling the muscles in his back slowly relax against the floor. Now it was Shepard’s turn to laugh.

“You look exhausted.”

“I _feel_  exhausted!”

Shepard came to his knees, shuffled over to Kaidan and stretched out again into push-up position over top of Kaidan’s body. The look he gave Kaidan had nothing of the hospital-bed determination Kaidan had been so used to seeing on his face. 

“That’s what you get for packing your whole social calendar into one day,” Shepard whispered, chest still heaving with the exertions of his workout.

“Wanted to make sure I got to spend my time with you,” when Kaidan saw the way his lower lip trembled, his kissed it deeply and folded Shepard into his arms. Any breath Shepard had caught since putting his set on hold had been kissed out of him by the time Kaidan pulled back and ran his hands down his body. “Saw a lot of things that… made me think, today.”

“Like?” Shepard nuzzled into Kaidan’s hair, his hips pressing him down into the carpet.

“Just… kids and… people rebuilding. Bunch of bright new recruits at C-Sec. Feels like the war’s really over…”

“It is Kaidan.” Shepard kissed him again, “We did it. You and me.”

“Yeah,” Kaidan hungrily accepted Shepard’s kiss. 

“So… you ditched your mom just to interrupt my workout?” Shepard said playfully, but there was a needy suggestion hiding just behind his eyes, and Kaidan caught it.

“Miranda called me said they’d be getting dinner together at Apollo’s,” Kaidan said as Shepard began unbuckling his armor with nimble fingers. “Said she’d bring her back here when she was done.”

“Haven’t seen her,” Shepard said, pulling off the chest-plate to find Kaidan’s bare chest beneath. 

“Figured I’d come home early: been thinking about you all day.” Kaidan’s breath hitched when Shepard kissed a line from navel to collarbone. “Worried about you…”

Shepard gave him a skeptical look and settled back onto his chest, taking Kaidan’s face in his hands.

“See, couldn’t you just have left it at ‘I was thinking about you all day?’” The kiss he gave Kaidan was mingled sadness and love. “You don’t have to worry about me all the time.”

“I love you,” Kaidan let the words tickle at Shepard’s ear as he pulled him into his body. “Of course I worry about you.”

“You could pretend to not worry.” Shepard buried his face in Kaidan’s neck.

“I think we’ve done enough pretending.” Kaidan rolled them over, staring down. Shepard nodded and smiled. 

“Alright, Kay. I worry about you too,” he squeezed Kaidan’s hand. “Although, seeing you in that armor puts other thoughts in my head…”

Kaidan scarcely heard, and instead was staring at Shepard’s taped hands. 

“Wha–what’s this? You’ve been using the _punching bag_?”

“I didn’t have any other way to let go of my tension till you got home.”

“Come on,” Kaidan got his feet, “I’m taking this tape off you! You need to relax!” He led Shepard out to the hall.

“ _You_  need to take this armor off and relax, lover!” Shepard playfully pushed him into the bathroom. “I think we have plenty of time before your mom gets back…”

“Umm, actually,” came a meek feminine voice from the upstairs, “I’ve been here for about an hour… didn’t want to spoil your exercise, dear. So I’ve been in the living room… just… living…”

Kaidan’s eyes went wide.

“She’s definitely your mother,” Shepard muttered, adjusting himself and blocking Kaidan’s bare chest from view as Mrs. Alenko swept down the stairs with a sheepish blush on her face. “Mrs. Alenko… I’m… just _so_ pleased to meet you…”


	6. Day 6 - Grief

“I really _am_ fine to go out tonight, Kaidan. We don’t have to stay in…”

But Kaidan wasn’t convinced: the look in his eyes when Kaidan showed him the two model kits he’d purchased was a mixture of excitement and relief. And besides, Shepard was already lighting the fireplace and clearing a spot on the table in his office for the two of them. He preferred to stay in.

“So I got two, do you want the turian dreadnought or the volus freighter?”

Some time later, Shepard was as much hovering over Kaidan’s half-constructed volus freighter as he was his own ship.

“Now, to avoid a messy seam with the adhesive you need to—“

“—do like this?” Kaidan held up the perfectly glued seam with a wry smile.

“Yeah, that’s it.” Shepard plopped back down in his seat, somewhat mystified, “I didn’t know you did built models, Kaidan.”

“I don’t really… I mean… haven’t since…” he tried to smile, “…it’s not important.”

“Come on, Kaidan. Out with it.”

“Ha! It’s not that big of a deal, Shepard. I had lots of trial and error.”

“As a kid?”

“No,” Kaida finally huffed, “They were your models, if you’re wondering…”

“My models…” Kaidan could see the realization slowly dawn on Shepard’s face. “But they all got destroyed when the Normandy crash landed after the Crucible wave hit.”

“That’s true, but I tried my best to put them back together.”

“I didn’t know that.”

Kaidan shrugged, “Didn’t do so well. But it gave me lots of practice. Lots of time to think too.”

“Think? About?”

Kaidan picked up the next hull plate and carefully fitted it against the superstructure.

“Well… we all thought you were dead.”

“…Oh.”

“I got up to your cabin—I hadn’t been up there in days—but I figured I should at least feed your fish. And when I opened the door to the loft, your model case had shattered. Little ships everywhere, all of them broken.”

He took a deep breath, carefully squeezed a bead of molecular adhesive around the hull plate, fitting it into place.

“I… uh… didn’t want to believe you were dead. I told everyone that you _had_ to be alive still. But most nights when I was alone I didn’t really believe it. Well, I did, but when you’re really low and you don’t _really_  believe something, y’know?”

“Yeah,” Shepard swallowed.

“So I would sit on the floor and try to… put those ships back together. Piece by piece. Felt like… if I could just put them all back together then…” he shook his head, “Oh nevermind.”

“No, go on. If you want.”

“It was hard. Every ship in that case was a memory we had together. And they were all just broken all over the floor.” He did not meet Shepard’s eye as he selected another section of hull plating for his freighter. “The SR-1 was in a sorry shape, practically cracked right in half the way it was the last time I saw it… with you spinning out into space. The Sovereign model broke off nearly all its tentacles. And I that got me thinking about that final battle with Saren in the Citadel tower—how I thought you’d been crushed when the ceiling came down and then you popped back out. I was so happy, then. Trying to rebuild that model thinking I’d never see you again?”

He shrugged.

“The geth dreadnought and our narrow escape…” his progress on the freighter in front of him had ground to a hault as the memories came back to him. “That turian frigate we bought together on our date. All those conversations we had in the Kodiak. The way I felt so proud of you when you saved the Destiny Ascension. It was pretty much a roadmap of everywhere we’d been together.

“And then there was the Citadel… and I couldn’t touch that one for a long time. Couldn’t even pick it up off the floor. The way I watched it explode with you right in the middle of everything…” Shepard’s hand slipped into his, “So I sat there. Alone. Every night. I couldn’t talk to anybody, had to stay strong for the crew. But I sat and I tried gluing the pieces back together. And I couldn’t. They looked awful, they looked deformed. They would never be the same. Throwing them away… was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, thinking maybe you weren’t—“

Shepard leaned in and shushed him with a kiss on his lips, gripping so tightly on his hand that Kaidan could barely concentrate on the kiss. When Shepard leaned back and grinned at him, Kaidan found it easy to smile back.

“Let’s make some new memories, then,” Shepard winked, but his tone was sincere.

“We’re gonna need a display case in here, eh?”

“A big one.”


	7. Day 7 - Choice

Kaidan slowly worked the buttons on the blue plaid shirt until he had closed it to his chin. A moment later, he thought better of it and opened the top two buttons.

Relax. That was the order of the day. He tucked the shirt into his jeans and ran a comb once more through his hair. There was a twinge in his shoulder, and—not for the first time today, between the Arena and the children’s hospital—he felt very old.

He checked himself over in the full length mirror hung in Shepard’s apartment. He looked alright. Certainly no longer young. But older than he ever expected to get. As a child he had always been dreaming of the future: where he’d be when he was 40, when he’d get married, how many kids he’d have….

But just over a year ago, he and Shepard had stood in this closet the morning after what was supposed to be their last hurrah before facing off against Cerberus and the Reapers. Despite all the posturing and bravado, they had kissed that night like it was the last time they’d ever get the chance. The future was two days of war, and then oblivion. He’d been okay with it then, long as he had Shepard by his side, that was all the future needed to be.

Now that the Reapers were gone and the future stretched out in front of him for decades… he honestly couldn’t get back in the habit of planning that far ahead. He smiled to himself. Relax.

He pulled the shirt out of his pants and left it untucked, rolled the sleeves up to his elbow.

“Kaidan?” Came Shepard’s soft voice at the door of the closet, “Your mom’s already in the car. You just about ready?”

“Sure thing. All set.” Shepard was grinning at the door of the closet in his jeans and a t-shirt.

“Wow…” Shepard smiled, ran his fingers down Kaidan’s chest. “I’m not used to seeing you in civvies… I… really like this.”

“We said we were going casual.”

“I know… just… never could’ve imagined I’d see you like this. Never thought a day like this would happen for us.” He hugged Kaidan with a grin.

“I was just thinking about that. It’s been a hell of a past 48 hours. Seeing those kids in the hospital… talking to Jack about teaching at Grissom… feels like the future’s an open road, y’know?”

“You scared?” Shepard whispered against his lips.

“Excited.” He reached out behind him and pulled Shepard’s leather jacket off its hanger and slid around his shoulders, smoothed the collar. “First things first. Let’s go, handsome.”

++

By the time Shepard and Kaidan had reached Normandy Memorial Park on the Presidium, their friends had been waiting for some time. The night before as they had talked softly and put together model ships, they had gotten in contact with their friends—most of whom were on the Citadel already for one official function or another—and asked them to meet them the following day. It took a few minutes to get all the pleasantries out of the way, and finally they had the crowd’s full attention.

Kaidan looked to Shepard, and the commander took a step back and waved him forward. Kaidan rolled his eyes, but cleared his throat.

“Hey everyone, thanks for coming on such short notice,” he began, suppressing the laugh bubbling up from his chest when Shepard stepped up behind him to hook his chin over Kaidan’s shoulder. “We promised you a party for old time’s sake, and there’s lots of drinks back at Shepard’s apartment and… food… and dancing… and all that.

“But first things first. Ummm… “ he faltered, but Shepard wrapped his arms around Kaidan’s waist and rocked him back and forth gently, as if no one else were around. “You all know we’re engaged and we didn’t give a date for the wedding. We didn’t want to make it a big production and have the media all over the place…. Well, we decided last night that we’d… just kinda like to do it. So we eloped.”

“What? When?” Liara gasped.

Shepard squeezed Kaidan tight, “Today. Right now. This is our wedding.”

After so long of living moment to moment, Kaidan really wasn’t used to planning things out long-term. But, for today at least, that wasn’t a bad thing. A year ago, he didn’t think he had a future. Now that he had years and years, he didn’t know how to spend them.

But today that didn’t matter. The future was there. Shepard was there.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for reading! Kaidan is my absolute favorite character, and I love writing him. There's lots more Mshenko and Mass Effect fics still stuck on my tumblr, bagog.tumblr.com/fanfic-directory.
> 
> I guess... let me know if there's a particular story/arc from there you'd like to see moved here, next?


End file.
